Juukan Gorge in Western Australia is one of the earliest known sites occupied by Aboriginals in Australia, and its destruction by Rio Tinto sparked widespread revulsion
Juukan Gorge in Western Australia is one of the earliest known sites occupied by Aboriginals in Australia, and its destruction by Rio Tinto sparked widespread revulsion PKKP Aboriginal Corporation / Handout

The disrespectful manner in which the coroner's office handled ancestral remains has angered the Aboriginal community in Tasmania. According to reports, there was no sufficient notification or consultation before the bones were delivered to the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC).

The target of the ire was four evidence bags carrying ancestors' remains yielded from two different studies. A solitary Aboriginal bone was discovered in one bag near Carlton Beach in 2022 by a local. The bones in the other three came from a secluded spot on the western shore in 2016, ABC reported.

Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) campaign manager Nala Mansell feels that there has been a "complete disrespect and disregard" for First Nations people by the state in how it has handled the ancestral remains.

"A police officer has rocked up unannounced to the Tasmanian centre with paper bags informing us that: 'Here's the bones of your ancestors. I've been asked to drop them off to you,'" Mansell said.

"We're at a loss as to how, after 220 years, the remains of Aboriginal people in this state continue to be treated with the utmost disrespect in a manner that we understand would not be OK if it was a non-Aboriginal person," she added.

Before being properly identified, a group of bones that were discovered at Carlton Beach and date back over a millennium remained unnoticed for years. The other, discovered close to Low Rocky Point, also took a while to find. The coroner's office has angered the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC) for not consulting them and for keeping them waiting for a long time to communicate. Mansell told ABC that this is against the law and constitutes racial discrimination. She is demanding that the coroner's handling of Aboriginal remains be thoroughly investigated.